US troops open fire again on Fallujah crowd
By Charles J Hanley, AP
30 April 2003


US troops opened fire today on anti-American demonstrators for the second time this week, during a march to protest about the previous shootings. At least one person was reported to have been killed and 16 wounded.

The gunfire came less than 48 hours after a shooting during a demonstration on Monday night that hospital officials said killed 13 Iraqis.

The clashes in Fallujah, a conservative Sunni Muslim city and Baath Party stronghold 30 miles west of Baghdad, reflect the area's increasing tensions as American troops try to keep the peace in Iraq.

About 1,000 residents were marching down Fallujah's main street and stopped in front of a battalion headquarters of the US Army's 82nd Airborne Division, in a compound formerly occupied by Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. The demonstrators were carrying signs condemning Monday night's shooting.

Protesters started throwing rocks and shoes at the compound and troops opened fire about 10:30 a.m. (0630 GMT), scattering the demonstrators. Demonstrators then returned to pick up the wounded.

Medical staff at the Fallujah hospital said a 30-year-old man was killed, another man was in critical condition and 15 others were wounded.

Some witnesses said the gunfire appeared to come from within the compound, but Maj. Michael Marti, an intelligence officer for the division's 2nd Brigade, said the soldiers in a passing convoy fired on the crowd. "My understanding is that there was no fire from the compound."

As the convoy was passing, the demonstrators "started throwing rocks and then at one point, they (soldiers) were engaged by what they believed was an AK-47" and opened fire, Marti said.

City officials who witnessed the gunfire said they saw or heard no shooting from among the protesters.

US Apache attack helicopters circled the site throughout the march and the aftermath, but did not open fire. US officers were meeting with Fallujah mayor Taha Bedaiwi al-Alwani and leading area sheiks.

"Why? The demonstrators didn't use guns, so why should the soldiers start attacking them?" asked the imam of the Grand Fallujah Mosque, Jamal Shaqir Mahmood.

He said the Americans should pull out of Fallujah - or at least cut back their forces.

"There is no (Iraqi) military presence here. Why is there an American military presence? We just want a reduction in the numbers," he said.

Fallujah is site of factories suspected of being linked to banned weapons programs for Saddam Hussein's regime.

Americans and Iraqis have given sharply differing accounts of Monday night's shooting. US forces insisted they opened fire only upon armed men - about 25 infiltrators among the protest crowd of 200, according to Col. Arnold Bray, commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, 325 Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division.

Protesters insisted their demonstration was unarmed and peaceful.

Dr Ahmed Ghandim al-Ali, director of Fallujah's general hospital, said the clash on Monday killed 13 Iraqis - including three young boys - and injured about 75. Some residents put the death toll higher, at 15.

No American was injured.